


Festive (Mist)foxes

by Burgie



Series: JackxYdris AU [10]
Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: 12 Days of Ficsmas, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 18:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17006982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Jack and Ydris share a festive moment with their fur babies. Jack belongs to SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher.





	Festive (Mist)foxes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher (UglyJackal)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/UglyJackal/gifts).



Jack hadn't visited his friend Louisa in a while. Certainly not since she'd moved to South Hoof to help out at the rescue ranch. And he felt a little strange, to be knocking on her door after not having shown up for a long time. They barely even spoke anymore, she was busy spending time with some new friends. And that was fine, because sometimes, friends just... drifted apart. But the smile on Louisa's face when she opened the door to see him standing on her doorstep did tug an answering smile to Jack's lips.

"Hey, Louisa," said Jack. "Long time, huh?"

"Jack, hi!" said Louisa, giving him a tight hug that Jack found himself returning. "Yeah, it's been a while, how've you been?"

"Pretty good," said Jack. "How about you?"

"Pretty great, actually," said Louisa. "I didn't know you were coming over, I would've cooked something for you."

"That's okay," said Jack, shrugging. "I actually came over to ask you to cook something for me."

"Like what?" Louisa asked. At least she didn't seem to mind when her friends took advantage of her baking abilities, it probably happened a lot.

"Well, I know you like cooking sweet things for humans, but... how are you with baking treats for animals?" Jack asked. "Like, say... dogs and foxes."

"Oh yeah, I can definitely do that," said Louisa, nodding. "I've been making some horse cookies with Madison, but I can learn some dog or fox cookies."

"That would be great," said Jack, grinning. "Kit charges a fucking fortune for hers and I don't really feel comfortable going over there."

"Yeah, I don't blame you," said Louisa, making a face. "That woman has problems."

"I'll say," said Jack. "Want me to help or...?"

"If you want," said Louisa, already walking into the house. Jack followed her, looking around at the sparse decor that decorated Louisa's house. There was pale grey carpet on the floor, a pale blue couch in the front room (which was probably a lounge room) with a flat-screen TV on a TV cabinet in front of it, doors leading off to other rooms, a hallway that led to another room, and an open-plan doorway leading to the kitchen. It also sported, at this time of year, a large real fir Christmas tree in a pot surrounded by presents and bedecked with decorations over in the left corner closest to the front of the house. And, of course, there was a bookshelf tucked over on the left side of the room.

"You finally got a place of your own, huh?" said Jack, standing in the kitchen's huge entryway.

"Yeah," said Louisa, rummaging through her cookbooks. She pulled one off the shelf, frowned at it, and put it back. "Hugh said he needed help and there was an empty house on South Hoof so I moved in. And it means that I can watch the wild horses and play with foals every day, so win-win." Her smile was so bright, and Jack hadn't noticed before how dimmed it had been. His friend was... happy. Truly happy. Her new friends must have been really good for her, then.

"Does Lisa live with you?" Jack asked. He wasn't sure what to say, it had been so long since they'd spoken. At least Louisa had the excuse of looking for a recipe, Jack felt awkward not even speaking.

"Of course," said Louisa. She pointed to the single door on the left side of the lounge room. "Her music room's in there. Do you still live with Ydris?"

"Of course," said Jack, moving into the kitchen with her. He reached up to the shelves above the kitchen benches in the corner, taking down a book on animal recipes. He started to flip through it, finding it completely bizarre and unfair that food specifically for animals could look so good. "Still in his wagon but I don't mind."

"So you recovered after that thing with Concorde, then?" said Louisa, giving Jack a more serious look from behind her red-framed glasses.

"Yeah," said Jack, his hand pausing on the spine of another book as he caught eyes with his friend. "It was tough, but... I can't stay away. Not from someone that good-looking." Louisa laughed, and the awkward tension in the air disappeared.

Eventually, after a quick internet search and a vow to buy more recipe books that catered specifically to animals, Jack and Louisa managed to find recipes for dog cookies and fox cookies. While Louisa rummaged through the pantry for ingredients, Jack brought out the cookie cutters. Of course his friend had some festive ones- candy canes, stars, reindeer, even some shaped like reindeer antlers and reindeer ears. And, of course, gingerbread men and dogs and foxes.

"Right, let's get baking," said Louisa as she tied her hair back and tied an apron around her waist. "If you want to help, I mean."

"I guess I don't have much else to do," said Jack, grabbing Louisa's spare apron from the back of the pantry door. He turned to his beaming friend, who looked like Christmas had come early (and, well, it was the season). "What do you need me to do?"

Between the two of them, Jack and Louisa managed to bake up a batch of cookies of all different shapes (mostly Christmas-related) that smelled too damn good to be for animals. But Jack knew what had gone in there (nothing bad, just not enough sugar) and wasn't about to make the mistake of tasting one. While the cookies cooled, the two friends caught up on old times as they sat on the couch, sharing laughs over things that had happened before. And, though Louisa was hesitant at first, she eventually told Jack about what she'd been up to.

"You have how many fucking horses now?" Jack asked with a laugh.

"Over two hundred," said Louisa, pushing a lock of her brown hair behind her ear.

"What, are you trying to make a fucking horse ranch or something?" Jack asked.

"I dunno, maybe?" said Louisa with a laugh. "I'm just really bad at saying no to a cute face."

"So am I, apparently," said Jack with a roll of his eyes. Louisa giggled.

Once the cookies were cool enough, Jack and Louisa frosted them, using fitting colours. Red and white stripes for the candy canes, yellow for the stars, and orange and white for one of the foxes. Also brown, black, and white for one of the dogs and a pale yellow for another dog.

"What do Halli's babies look like?" Louisa asked after frosting the tips of the fox tails in white.

"I'll take over," said Jack, gently nudging his friend to the side as he picked up the piping bag of brown frosting. Carefully, he frosted Socks' cookie, making sure to include the little black tips of his ears. He smiled the whole time before moving onto the other three- one orange like his mother, one a pale grey, and one pure white but for little black feet.

"You're a grandfather," Louisa cooed. Jack laughed.

"Yeah, I am," said Jack. He set the piping bag down, standing back to admire their handiwork. Then, he smiled at his friend. "Thanks for agreeing to do that for me."

"Anything to help out a friend," said Louisa, giving him a smile as she turned around to begin filling the sink with hot water. Jack was glad that she still considered him a friend, even after everything.

About an hour later, Jack left South Hoof with a plastic container full of frosted cookies.

"So much for a quick visit," Dale quipped, flicking a grey ear back towards his rider.

"Shut up," said Jack. "I was catching up with a friend."

"You're going soft in your old age," said Dale. Jack scoffed.

And yet, as soon as Jack dismounted Dale outside of the purple-striped silk tent, he felt far younger than he actually was. He was almost damn skipping as he walked over to the wagon and let himself in, the container of cookies tucked under his arm.

"Ah, bluejay," said Ydris, leaning around the end of the hallway to beam at his fiance. "What a pleasant surprise."

"Fuck off," said Jack with a laugh. "Are they still here?"

"By some miracle, yes," said Ydris. "Hurry in, before they destroy my furniture."

"Hold your horses, I'm comin'," said Jack. He hung his red plaid jacket on the coat rack by the front door, along with his black helmet, and walked down the hallway to greet his fiance with a kiss on the lips. Ydris returned the kiss happily, though he cut it short to gesture to the four mistfoxes who were currently chasing each other around and around their exhausted mother. They were still soft, their eyes bright and shiny, though they were much bigger than they'd been twelve months ago. They also actually looked like foxes now. And Jack still found his heart melting at the sight of them. Apparently, unlike regular foxes, mistfoxes stayed together in family units for far longer than six months. Halli seemed to be hating this fact, though Jack and Ydris loved it.

"They've been doing that all day," said Ydris, watching the foxes run circles around their mother. Walter joined in, huge ears flapping in the breeze as he leaped over the fox in a very amusing reversal of the old saying. Now, it was the quick brown dog jumping over the lazy fox. Well, Walter wasn't completely brown, but that was only a minor detail.

"Are you dizzy yet?" Jack asked, setting down the cookie container. The cookies inside tapped against the plastic, making all four foxes stop dead and stare up at it. Walter, not paying attention, ploughed right into Socks, who yelped and rolled into the Christmas tree that they'd been playing beside.

"Oh dear," said Ydris, standing and hurrying over to the tree. He scooped up Socks, who had a single sock stuck over his head. The poor thing whimpered and yipped, paws scrabbling at the sock on his face.

"Hang on, here, I've got ya," said Jack, stepping towards Ydris and carefully pulling the sock off of Socks' face. Socks stared at him with wide, frightened eyes and licked Jack's face, to which Jack laughed and straightened the sock so that it was only sitting atop Socks' head like a hat.

"That is a rather cute image," said Ydris. With a wave of his hand, little Christmas hats appeared on the other four foxes, including Halli, who looked the calmest of the group. She was used to her 'dad' doing weird magical shit to her. Jack squealed, looking at the now-hatted mistfoxes.

"I need to take a picture," said Jack. Though, with the confused-looking kits wandering around trying to stare up at their heads, Jack needed to record a video of it first. Especially when Mara, the pale grey one, tried to attack the white puff ball on the end of her ginger brother Ben's Santa hat. The resulting tussle was recorded for future posterity (and cooing over) on Jack's phone.

"They need wreath collars too," said Ydris, and, as he said it, they appeared. Now, the siblings could attack their siblings' necks under the guise of trying to get at the fake leaves. Halli only sighed, her head on her paws as Ben and Katie (the white one) tugged at either side of her wreath collar.

"Walter needs one of each too," said Jack. "And Vishanti." The dogs looked up at the sounds of their names. Vishanti had been sitting by the fireplace, which glowed with purple Pandorian flame, the only one of the group (other than Halli) behaving himself. He still sat still as Ydris created a green Santa hat and wreath collar for him, though Walter yipped and immediately started trying to tug his collar off.

"Hmm, something still seems to be missing," said Ydris, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. With a grin, he snapped his fingers and little festive socks appeared on the feet of each dog and mistfox. Once again, the kits went mad, as did Walter, while Halli only sat up and started trying to groom the fur on her shoulder that had been ruffled by her children trying to tear her throat out. Vishanti tried to stand and took a few tottering steps forward, to the amusement of both men and more embarrassing footage to be sent to friends and uploaded online.

"Now we've gotta convince them to sit still for a family photo," said Jack. He looked at his fiance. "Any ideas?"

"Um. Sit still for the photo and don't kill your sibling and you get a cookie?" Ydris suggested.

"That works, I think," said Jack. He turned back to the chaos, giving a whistle. "Oi, you lot. Sit the fuck down and behave while we take a photo and you'll get a cookie." The foxes, not understanding human language, did not listen. Jack sighed, rolling his eyes, and turned back to his fiance. "Well, that worked."

"I thought you were the woodland prince," said Ydris, looking just as confused as he sounded. Jack dragged his hand down his face from beneath his glasses.

"That's not... fucking hell," said Jack. All he could do was laugh. "Never fucking mind, of course you don't get that it's just a nickname."

"Oh," said Ydris. "I could perhaps coerce them into sitting still?"

"Don't hypnotise our babies," said Jack with a gasp.

"You wound me, bluejay," said Ydris, pressing a hand to his chest in a show of dramatics. "I merely was referring to holding a cookie up in front of them and using it as... bait, of sorts."

"Oh yeah, like photographers do to get good photos of animals," said Jack. "And movie makers, yeah, that makes sense." He nodded. "Good plan, you do that."

"Ah, but first," said Ydris. With a wave of his hand, the two men were suddenly dressed in rather more festive attire. Ydris' fine purple suit had been replaced with a suit that looked like colourful giftwrap, a lurid green covered in images of wrapped presents and candy canes. Jack, meanwhile, was clad in an ugly Christmas sweater depicting a deer on a dark blue background, as well as the jeans that he'd been wearing. They also both now wore red Santa hats, the puff ball at the end hanging down against Jack's cheek.

"Great, now we all look ridiculous," said Jack.

"But of course," said Ydris. "Tis the season, l'amour." Jack grinned, shaking his head even as warmth filled his chest from being called that.

"Overdramatic git," said Jack, giving his fiance a kiss before grabbing the cookie container. "Alright, how are we gonna do this?"

"Like so," said Ydris. He opened his palm, which was now glowing softly with a pink light. The lid of the cookie container came off and a cookie floated out. The eyes of every animal followed it, the kits finally sitting down in a line in front of the fire.

"Alright," said Jack. "Vishanti, you sit at one end, and Walter, you sit at the other end of the line of foxes." He picked up Vishanti, grunting as he set the dog down beside Halli while Walter sat down next to Socks at the other end of the line. Jack couldn't help but laugh again at the comical sight of Socks with a sock on his head.

"And now for us, bluejay," said Ydris. Jack watched as his phone was levitated up along with the cookie, the screen turned to face them so that Ydris could see what they looked like before he took the picture. Jack and Ydris knelt down between the animals and the fire, their hands touching and bringing an easy, true smile to Jack's face. "Are we ready?"

"I think we look pretty," said Jack. "Just your typical gay family, two guys and their furbabies."

"Yes, utterly typical," said Ydris with a chuckle. For once, he didn't seem to mind. Maybe it really was the season to be jolly. Or maybe Ydris was just so happy to be taking holiday snaps with his fiance.

After a little more positioning and repositioning, Ydris finally took a photo that they were happy with. Jack grinned at the photo, quickly making it his new phone background. He and Ydris (and their fur babies) looked like a real family. This would make a great holiday card, all it needed was the message "Happy Holidays from the Wolfwatcher Family". Which would be applied and sent out to all of their friends.

"I am going to frame this," said Ydris as he looked at the photo.

"I second that notion," said Jack. "It's a nice one."

"Our family," said Ydris. "It can take pride of place until we have a wedding photo to display." He gave his fiance a knowing look, to which Jack blushed and looked back at the pets who were currently making a mess of the cookie container's contents, which Jack had left in front of them on the floor as a reward for being good.

"Yeah, when that happens," said Jack. Before he could get too morose, though, Ydris pulled him in for a kiss, kissing Jack's face until he smiled again.

"That's better," Ydris crooned. "We are standing in the living room of my wagon surrounded by fur babies who are making a mess of the place, this is a happy moment."

"I know," said Jack, grinning as Halli growled at a kit who got too close to her cookie that she held between her front legs as she laid down and chewed on it. Maybe they should've made more cookies, but Louisa had the recipe now, so they could make more cookies anytime.


End file.
